Countryside Rangers Diary
November
STOP PRESS - Remember to check your bonfire for hedgehogs before you light it for Guy Fawkes night.
Or even better don't light a fire on the site the material has been standing but move it to the fire site just before you light it.
Your bonfire, heaped with leaves and garden remains from the summer, provides hedgehogs with a great place to nest and hibernate. They start to hibernate this month and will continue through to March. The latest mild spell has seen them feeding up in preparation for the winter. You could encourage them to visit your garden by leaving out some food. Both dog and cat food (not fish based) are great although you can add kitchen scraps as well; in dry spells leave a saucer of water. The traditional bread and milk is best avoided as neither agreed to well with the hedgehog digestion system.
This is the month when the autumn leaves are at their most spectacular. Dress up warm and come for a walk in the park. It's worth checking around the orangery gardens to see the coloured leaves of some of the more unusual ornamental trees in the formal gardens.
This is a great time for wildlife watching; when the leaves have fallen it's hard for animals to hide from view, you are bound to spot some of the cheeky grey squirrels that run from branch to branch high in the trees. The first hard frost or really high wind will strip the leaves from the trees and it is at this time you can spot many houses! The winter squirrel dreys are a common sight. They are generally built in the forks of large trees against the trunk, where they are protected from the worst of the winter storms. They often look untidy, one of the features specific to squirrel dreys is the use of twigs which often still have their leaves attached! Extra camouflage perhaps!
Birds nests are often revealed as the leaves are lost, a good place to spot a blackbirds nest are in the rough scrub vegetation all around the park, if your lucky you might spot a song thrush's. Both species line their nests with mud, but the blackbird adds a layer of grass on top. A nest near a stump or in dense vegetation, looking like a mossy football with a hole in its side will be a wren masterpiece. Old nests are often used by squatters such as voles and wood mice- spot their stashes of seeds and fruit. Nut cases!
It isn't difficult to distinguish this year's hazelnuts- green white- from last year's- dark brown, but can you tell who has been feeding on them? Wood mice and yellow- necked mice leave a hole with a rough chiselled edge surrounded by a ring of scratches. Dormice, rare in this area, leave tooth marks on the surface of the nut but a smooth almost chamfered rim to the hole. Voles stick their heads into the hole and nibble at the near side making a rough edged hole with no scratches on the outside of the shell. Squirrels, with stronger teeth make a hole at the apex before slicing the nut in two.
Check out the beech mast for a weather prediction-The saying goes If the beech nut is dry, we shall have a hard winter; but if it be wet and not light, we may expect a wet one!
A great month to be enjoying the park.